Chapter 28 #2
She steps around in front of me, boots crunching over broken glass and shell casings as she surveys the carnage with casual amusement.
Tactical gear hugs her frame, black fabric smeared with streaks of someone else’s blood, her weapon hanging loosely in one hand.
And it’s almost comical to the way I’d imagined her.
She’s a hacker. Not an assassin. She doesn’t know how to use the weapons lining her belt, wouldn’t even know where to begin, and considering she knows exactly what I’m capable of, she must truly believe that she has an ace up her sleeve; otherwise, she’d never even try.
Perhaps the countless assassins were that ace, but I barely broke a sweat taking them out.
I don’t recognize her face. We’ve never met each other in this way.
But the voice. God. The voice. I could almost pretend that it’s not real, that this woman before me truly isn’t Milan, but there’s no denying the voice of my best friend—my only friend.
“I’ve always wanted to use one of these. How sweet that you got to be my very first test hamster,” she says softly, not even a hint of guilt in her tone, making me wonder who the fuck I’ve been talking to all these years. The woman I know would never do this.
The betrayal hits harder than the taser ever could.
“Well, this is awkward,” she says, tilting her head as if considering the situation, “Surprised?”
I stare at her, my chest tightening so hard it hurts to breathe. “You . . .” My voice cracks as I try to force the words out. “You did this?”
“Of course I did,” she says, a subtle laugh in her tone as her smile widens, sending a chill pulsing through my veins as I finally get a bit of movement back in my body.
Though I’m careful to keep still, not willing to give myself away.
“I’ve known who you were from the beginning, Kiara.
I know we promised not to, but I couldn’t help it.
It’s just who I am. But that’s the perk of being a hacker.
There are no secrets. Home address, background records, your agency stats, your real name.
” She pauses, eyes glittering with something ugly.
“Even the little detail about the family who left you on a firehouse doorstep when you were four days old.”
My chest tightens. That’s not something I’ve ever told a soul.
“You and me, we had a good thing going. But you just had to go and ruin it. You brought this on yourself,” she says with a shrug, casually stepping over bodies, as though they’re nothing but dirt on the floor. “You should’ve stayed away from the Iron Viper.”
Raiden. Fuck. Just mentioning his name tells me she already knows too much.
Fear spikes through my veins.
“You should never have gotten involved with him,” Milan continues, almost conversationally.
“But you couldn’t help yourself, could you?
Always got to have it all. Didn’t take long for you to slip up, and all the pieces started clicking.
Once I realized Raiden was the Iron Viper, and that you’d been compromised, everything just kinda . . . fell into place.”
She gestures lazily at the bodies scattered around us before letting out a sigh.
“This is going to be a problem, though. I knew you’d get through some of them, but you’ve nearly taken out the whole agency.
I’m going to have to start recruiting new contractors, but it’s honestly a shame.
Losing you really is going to put a dent in my bank account. ”
My hands curl into fists against the floor.
“You left evidence everywhere,” she says, almost sounding disappointed. “Stealing each other’s hits, playing ridiculous little games. You’re better than that, Kiara. Honestly, you’ve left me no choice.”
She’s right, and I hate that. It’s the reason why Raiden had walked away. We were already heading down this slippery slope, but it doesn’t make the sting of her betrayal hurt any less.
Milan’s gaze drifts across the apartment before settling on the only two things in the entire room still intact, and my heart sinks.
No.
Spikezilla and Needles.
“Oh look, the cactus survived,” Milan chimes, picking up Spikezilla, recognizing her in an instant from the hundreds of pictures I’ve sent of all her ridiculous pots over the years, just as I’d recognize her cat, Morris.
She looks over Spikezilla before picking up Needles in her other hand, scanning over the penis pot and immediately knowing how it managed to come into my home. “This though . . . This is new.”
Disgust is thick in her tone, and I ease up onto my elbow, fear pounding in my chest. “Milan,” I warn, my heart racing a million miles an hour.
Milan’s gaze sweeps back to mine, and when a wicked smirk cuts across her face, my world plummets, right along with Spikezilla and Needles as she opens her hands, letting them both crash to the ground.
A sharp, pained yelp tears from the back of my throat, watching in horror as both their pots smash into a million pieces, soil scattering across the bloodstained floor.
Oh, hell no.
That fucking bitch.
Rage ignites in my chest, and it takes everything in me not to launch myself across the room. I need to regain proper movement of my body before I can strike.
“Oh,” she says sweetly. “Almost forgot. I brought you a surprise.”
My gaze snaps up toward my broken front door just as a man appears, stepping over a body to enter right into my apartment, a smirk lingering on his lips as he takes me in, sprawled across the floor without an ounce of energy to fight.
Louis Mendez.
What the actual fuck?
“Hello, sweetheart,” he says smoothly, that chilling tone sending shivers down my spine.
But not out of fear. I don’t fear this man.
He’s vile and wants things I’ll never give him, but he couldn’t touch me even if he tried.
The bigger question here is, how the fuck is he related to all of this bullshit? “I’ve been looking for you.”
Not giving Louis the time of day, I ignore him as I sweep my attention back to Milan, my body getting stronger by the second. “What the fuck is he doing here?”
Milan stares at me as though I haven’t been paying attention. “Hacker. Duh,” she says with a grunt, rolling her eyes. “I tapped your phone and found his texts, and he was all too willing to play his part. Apparently you owe him big time.”
I scoff in disgust, and deciding I’ve finally had enough, I spring to my feet, my body still shaking, but I won’t need much to take out these two morons.
Milan’s eyes widen, scrambling to activate the taser again, but I reach around to my back and yank the prongs that are embedded in my skin free, carelessly dropping them to the floor as I slam my foot down against the blade of my kitchen knife, sending it whipping up into the air.
I catch it with ease, and before it even has a chance to settle in my palm, it’s already flying across my apartment, plunging deep into the front of Louis’ throat. Hell, I don’t even look toward him. My peripheral vision aim is just that good.
Instead, I keep my stare trained on Milan, slowly inching toward her, the rage I feel like nothing else.
Because all of this is on her. She orchestrated every inch of it, and if Raiden is dying just feet away from me right now, and I’m missing my one shot to save him, then I will never forgive myself.
Louis goes down with a heavy thud, but all I’m focused on is her.
Milan’s mouth opens slightly, disbelief flashing across her face, but it quickly morphs into fear as she takes a step back, crushing Spikezilla’s roots beneath her feet.
“You . . .” she breathes. “No, it’s not possible. You shouldn’t have been able to—”
I grin. “You should know better, Milan. I tell you all the time, there’s nothing I love better than when somebody underestimates me. Makes my job a fucking treat.”
She doesn’t respond, just attempts to back up further, only her hip catches the edge of my entryway table, leaving her nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.
“Loyalty means everything to me, Milan,” I say quietly. “You know that best, yet here you are. You knew better. Betrayal doesn’t suit you. It’s ugly, and honestly, you can’t pull it off.”
Her throat bobs as she swallows.
For a second, something like regret flickers in her eyes, but it’s too late for that, and I move forward, my steps steady despite the lingering tremor in my aching muscles.
Pausing by a body, I pluck a blade from his vest, quickly scanning over it. It’s nice. The guy clearly had good taste, though it doesn’t compare to any of my favorites.
I test the weight of the blade in my hand as I continue toward Milan, the steel cool as it settles naturally against my palm.
“I’m going to frame this blade once I’m through with you,” I tell her, my voice low and steady despite the storm raging through my chest. “It’ll sit up on a mantle somewhere.
I won’t even wipe your blood off it. I’ll let it stay there exactly the way it is, rust creeping along the edge like a slow infection. ”
Milan watches me approach, her confidence fractured.
I can see it in the way her shoulders stiffen, the way her fingers twitch around the weapon in her hand as if she’s only just remembering that the woman standing in front of her isn’t the same one she’s spent countless nights talking with into the early hours of the morning.
“You’re not getting out of this,” she says, but the words sound thinner now, stripped of the smug certainty she wore only moments ago. “They’ll never stop hunting you.”
The betrayal sits in my chest like broken glass. Every memory of her twists against the present, warping into something unrecognizable. All of it feels rotten now, hollowed out by the truth standing in front of me.
“As far as they know, I’m already dead,” I say softly.
Milan swallows, and I keep walking, watching as something calculating flickers behind her eyes. “You’re angry,” she says carefully, as though testing the words. “I get that. But this was bigger than you. Bigger than both of us.”
The knife rolls easily in my grip. “You sold me out.”
“I did what had to be done.”
“You hunted me.”
She takes a shaky breath as I inch closer, so close I smell her perfume. “You became a liability.”
The calmness in her voice scrapes against my nerves like sandpaper, and I clench my jaw, trying to regain composure, despite the fury and terror pulsing through my veins at the thought of Raiden alone next door. “You were my best friend.”
For the first time since she stepped into the room, something like guilt flashes across her face. It’s brief, gone almost as quickly as it appeared, but it’s there. “It was the way it had to go,” she says quietly.
I stop a few feet in front of her. The apartment is deathly still now, the aftermath of the fight pressing in from every direction.
The bodies. The blood. The ruined furniture.
The thick silence from the other side of the wall—where Raiden should have already come crashing through—and fear claws up my throat before I can stop it.
Is he alive? Is he lying somewhere next door, the same way Louis is lying behind Milan right now? The possibility makes my stomach turn, and I watch as Milan studies my face, a faint smile pulling at her lips.
“You’re worried about him,” she says, her gaze tightening.
My grip tightens on the blade.
“He’s probably already dead.”
“Careful,” I say quietly, a lethal stillness sweeping over me.
Milan tilts her head, curiosity flickering across her expression as she studies the shift in my posture. “You really love him,” she says, her tone almost accusatory.
I don’t answer, but the truth is there in my silence.
Instead, I step into her, my blade sliding forward in one clean motion, burying itself between Milan’s ribs.
Her breath catches, her eyes widening, realizing too late what’s happening, and for a moment we simply stand there, inches apart, the world narrowing to the space between us.
“I loved you,” I whisper, the words so heavy between us. “And now, when I think of you, all I’ll remember is this. Not the years of friendship. Just blatant betrayal. I’ll remember you as a snake.”
Her lips part slightly, as though she might respond, but the strength drains out of her body before the words can form, and her body drops.
I catch her, gently lowering her body to the ground as she holds my stare, blood pooling from the wound.
“It was the way it had to go,” I mumble as the light slowly fades from her eyes.
Just like that, my best friend is gone, and I simply stand, leaving her lifeless body behind, praying to whoever exists in this wide world that Raiden is still alive, still breathing, and still waiting for our forever.